The ability to predict an aircraft's trajectory is useful for several reasons.
Air traffic management (ATM) would benefit from an improved ability to predict an aircraft's trajectory. ATM is responsible for the safe separation of aircraft, a particularly demanding task in congested airspace such as around airports. ATM decision-support tools based on accurate trajectory predictions could allow a greater volume of aircraft to be handled while maintaining safety. Trajectory is a four-dimensional description of the aircraft's path. The description may be the evolution of the aircraft's state with time, where the state may include the position of the aircraft's center of mass and other aspects of the aircraft's motion such as velocity, attitude and weight. This benefit is particularly significant where ATM is operating in and around airports. As demand for slots at airports increases, ATM is under constant pressure to increase capacity by decreasing separation between aircraft; increased accuracy in predicting aircraft trajectories enables this to be done without compromising safety. Also, greater predictability in aircraft trajectories allows arrival times to be determined more accurately, thereby enabling better coordination with ground operations.
In current ATM practice, aircraft must typically fly set routes. For example, when approaching and departing an airport, aircraft are usually requested to fly a Standard Terminal Arrival Route (STAR) and a Standard Instrument Departure (SID), respectively. However, aircraft operators are increasingly requesting additional flexibility to fly according to their preferences, so that they can better pursue their business objectives. Furthermore, there is an increasing pressure on the ATM system to facilitate the reduction of the environmental impact of aircraft operations. As a result of the above, the ATM system requires the capability to predict operator-preferred trajectories as well as trajectories that minimize the impact on the environment, particularly in terms of noise and emissions. In addition, the ATM system must be able to exchange descriptions of such trajectories with the operators in order to arrive at a coordinated, conflict-free solution to the traffic problem.
The ability to predict an aircraft's trajectory would also be beneficial to the management of autonomous vehicles such as unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), for example in programming flight plans for UAVs as well as in commanding and de-conflicting their trajectories.
International PCT Patent Publication WO2009/042405 describes the general concepts of aircraft intent and flight intent, and the computer-implemented application of those concepts in formal languages, referred to as the aircraft intent description language (AIDL) and the flight intent description language. WO2009/042405 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
European Patent Application EP2482269, which is also in the name of The Boeing Company, describes flight intent in more detail. EP2482269 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.